Pixar’s John Lasseter and his 374 Hawaiian shirts (video)

John Lasseter, as Pixar fans know, wears Hawaiian shirts every day. A couple of years ago, when I was at Pixar for another story, I heard Lasseter casually mention that he organizes his shirts by subject. I made a request earlier this spring to see the “Toy Story” and “Cars 2″ director’s filing system first-hand, and was shocked when he not only agreed, but said it was OK if I bring a video camera.

Which is how I found myself inside a two-time Oscar winner’s closet, filming him with a Flip cam I had never operated before, while asking questions like “Do you feel completely disoriented wearing long-sleeved shirts?” And then the April Fool’s jokes started …

This video accompanies a Style section story that will appear in Sunday’s Chronicle. That article is here, currently under embargo unless you get the e-edition. I’ll update this post when it becomes available online.

A few more thoughts …

– The Lasseters really do get the San Francisco Chronicle delivered to their house, and Nancy Lasseter really did smear mayo inside of it before I arrived with Chronicle photographer Russell Yip. It’s a running joke between the couple, which started after the Chronicle included a mayonnaise package as an insert with the Sunday paper a year or two ago. Apparently the Lasseters’ newspaper hit face-down, and the mayo exploded.

– There was also a third April Fool’s joke before we arrived, involving a trampoline, a light bulb and what looked like a half pint of fake blood. I saw photos, and I’m still not completely sure what happened. The Lasseters are hard core on April 1.

– I also drove in to work with Lasseter from his Glen Ellen home to Pixar’s Emeryville campus. Look for a more filmmaking-focused article in the Sunday Datebook section closer to when “Cars 2″ comes out on June 24.

– My favorite part that’s mostly not included here: Right after he got pranked, Lasseter took the camera and started filming me, interviewing me about the other pranks that day. I told him that I’d give him a co-director credit, but decided not to, on the chance that it might end up on imdb.com. (Kidding.)

– Please do me a favor and resist any urges say anything unkind about the Lasseters. They were exceptionally cool. Famous people almost never do stuff like this, and if the comments get snide it might kill my chances to someday see inside Francis Ford Coppola’s sock drawer.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder of this parenting blog, which admittedly sometimes often has nothing to do with parenting. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/peterhartlaub. Your questions answered on VYou at www.vyou.com/peterhartlaub.